With tonight's pre-season friendly against Weymouth taking place, Yeovil Town supporters should at last get some small indications of what sort of squad Darren Way has been building since the final day of last season. As with many other summers, it's been a fairly major revamp. Nine permanent signings and seven loanees left the club, and so far we've had five permanent signings and one loanee replace them. Expect the number of loans in particular to rise once we tip into August.

There is a squad comparison list on the news page that allows some ability to see on a position-by-position basis how the 2017-18 season squad compares with the one we finished last season with. Since then, Olufela Olomola has arrived as the club's first loan - he can probably be considered to be a replacement for Shayon Harrison when matching up against last season's squad.

It seems clear that Darren is modelling his squad for next season with the 4-3-3 formation he favoured in mind, given the sort of personnel we have recruited. For example, in losing Alex Lawless, Matt Dolan and Kevin Dawson from the first choice midfield of last season we've ended up with defensive-minded James Bailey, coupled with Connor Smith who I'd expect to take Dolan's role, whilst Jake Gray should take Dawson's role. Rhys Browne looks to be in the squad to provide the outlet on the flank that we lost at Christmas when Ryan Hedges was injured, whilst Stephane Zubar can be considered to be this season's Darren Ward figurehead.

Looking at the list of players we've recruited and kept, there are a number of things that leap out. The first is that we are currently ten players down from the numbers we finished last season with. Some of that can be easily written off - the decision to recruit seven loanees during the second half of last season was a waste, particularly when so many of them filled identical positions. I assume we will eventually bring in four more loanees, and limit ourselves to a total of five, but even that would leave us with four places for permanent signings unfilled. Obviously we still have time to bring further players in, but in recent interviews Darren Way has implied he is looking for 'one or two' additional players, which implies a smaller squad than last season.

The second thing to note is that we have no specialised right-back. James Bailey can play there but it's not his primary position. Bevis Mugabi can also play there, but again it's not his first choice position. I therefore presume that this will be one of the positions that has not been filled yet. I did hear a rumour from earlier in the summer that Liam Shephard was coming back on a permanent basis - this week's news that he has signed for League One side Peterborough United makes it clear that isn't going to happen, but I wonder if that is why that position had remained unfilled.

The final thing to note is the attacking positions are rather thin on the ground. Scoring goals was a big problem for us last season, and so far we've not done too much to address that, with Francois Zoko and Otis Khan having been part of that squad that fired blanks on a number of occasions last time around - albeit that they were the brighter lights in that front line. Although Rhys Browne will probably play as one of the wide men, his record is more of a midfield creator than a goal scorer. So that just leaves the newest signing Olufela Olomola as the possible spark to the front positions that could get goals. But it would be asking a lot for a 19 year old in his first spell away from youth and development football to become the answer to all our prayers, for 46 games.

Hence I hope that at least one of the other remaining arrivals will be another wide man or striker. I'd also like to see a permanent acquisition in there somewhere. In January, apart from Brandon Goodship whose return was an odd decision, we didn't recruit any permanent attacking outlet with all of those forward players being loanees. If we are serious about building a squad that can get us into a play-off or promotion position, then we have to at least try to bring in players of our own in those positions. If we don't, then for the good signings like Ryan Hedges we'll have them for only half a season before someone else nips in, whilst for those who don't make the grade like Kabongo Tshimanga, they end up being a bit of a waste of time. The goal is obviously to find the next Paddy Madden, but that's only going to be realistic if there is the target of a permanent signing.

Aside from the gaps, the other question mark that will need to be answered will be whether the new arrivals are of the same quality as those we have lost. Replacing Lawless, Dolan and Dawson all in one hit will be a tough one. In theory all three of the new arrivals - Bailey, Gray and Smith - could match them, but experience tells us that this doesn't always happen. At this stage, I am less than convinced that the loss of both Alex Lacey and Darren Ward (when he was fit) has been overcome. It will need Bevis Mugabi to cut out a lot of the errors that had been making, and for Tom James to become a first team regular, or for Stephane Zubar's drop into non-league football to be proven to be that of a stop-gap, rather than a sign of where his career appeared to be going.

I've seen a number of Glovers fans on social media tip Yeovil for promotion or play-off places for this season, on the back of those six signings. I've already seen the infamous phrase of last season 'play-off push' used! I felt that created an over-hyped expectation, that created disappointment when it was clear it was the other end of the table we were staring at, so I hope we don't make the same mistake again. For myself, because I've yet to see the majority play, I'm inclined to be far more cautious. A reminder is needed that we finished last season on a run of three wins in 27 games that with the exception of Leyton Orient - at that time fielding almost their youth team - was the worst form in the division. We have been building from a low base.

Since then, we've lost reliable players in Dolan and Dawson, our player of the season in Lacey, whilst our club captain Ward ran out of legs. Just to stand still against last season's form, we'd need the new arrivals to match the outgoing players. But as we were clearly on relegation form, we need to do far better than that - particularly as Orient and Hartlepool United have been replaced by Lincoln City and Forest Green Rovers, both of which look like they will be strong this season. Without Plymouth Argyle and Portsmouth it's likely to be an open division next season, but it looks like it will be a very competitive one - even the weaker clubs like Morecambe and Newport County are showing signs that some of the issues they had to compete with last year have been dealt with, although I expect both to be bottom six sides.

Hence my caution in expecting too much at this stage. On the other hand, League Two does tend to be a fairly flat division, as we found during last season when we quietly moved from 6th in early December to 20th by the end of the season. Correspondingly, Exeter City were bottom early on, yet got into the play-offs. Even during Paul Sturrock's half season in charge, I didn't feel we were being outclassed - we just got bogged down with injuries that marginally weakened us. But that's usually what does it by the 46th game - teams that can maintain a bit of consistency will get there, whilst those with smaller squads or big injury lists end up falling by the wayside. As with last season, our hope will be that our 'First XI' lasts the pace, but the obvious disadvantage will be that clubs like Luton Town will have a greater depth when it comes to the crunch. My strictly-on-paper instincts are for us to be lower mid-table. I'll see how much I need to amend that view in seven friendlies time.

I am astounded that some on social media are tipping us for playoffs/promotion. Based on what exactly?
We have several younger players from last season who are still developing, and most of the new signings could be said to be trying to get their careers back on track.
Even if we had managed to keep Dawson, Dolan and Lacey a mid-table finish would in my view amount to success.
We are going to need to happen across a regular goalscorer to achieve that now.
11/07/2017 15:46:10

Graham said ...

In our most successful seasons we have had few injuries or suspensions. If we get lucky we will do well but if not, we will not have enough strength in depth to compete
11/07/2017 21:40:07

Dusty said ...

Yes I agree the most we can hope for is lower mid-table and comfortably avoiding a relegation scare. Anything better would be a surprise bonus. Still, DW is an experienced manager now with the top coaching qualification so he may yet surprise us. We need a goal scorer pronto - we have had them before so DW should know what they look like!!
11/07/2017 21:55:14

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